What is the Difference Between User Stories and Tasks?

User stories and tasks are rather different aspects of the Agile methodology. However, some people use these terms interchangeably.

This causes confusion and keeps you from reaping the full benefits of Agile work culture. That’s why it’s always important to start with the terms and their meanings.

Taiga.io blog proposes to clearly understand the difference between user stories and tasks, describing this topic in their post. Here’re the extracts:

The main thing is: the difference that user stories go to the product backlog and tasks go to a Sprint backlog after sprint planning is not valid. Then let’s dive into the definition:

User stories

A user story is a way to define a software feature from an end-user perspective.

It may look like “As a user, I want to be able to update my profile with social interests and age, so that people visiting my profile page get an idea of my interests”.

It demonstrates developers a clear idea of what they need to develop and what for. User stories are generally added in the product backlog, but sometimes they can even be added to sprint backlog based on the judgment of a Scrum master.

Preparing user stories usually involve a programmer and tester, perhaps a user interface designer or other specialists.

Tasks

Sometimes it is necessary to break user stories down into the workpieces that need to be done. Tasks are not usually written in user story format. They are written by the team and for the team. That’s why it’s important to use language the team will understand.

A task is a piece of work that needs doing to build a bigger story. Most tasks tend to be for developers, but they could be understood by anyone in the team.